New automated restaurant with no servers or cashiers opens in NYC

'A newly-opened eatery in Manhattan incorporates a futuristic take on a not-so-new concept in providing fresh, healthy and relatively inexpensive vegetarian meals to the public.

Eatsa is a modern, high-tech version of the automated lunch counter – an innovation first introduced to New Yorkers over a century ago. The restaurant employs no waiters or cashiers; customers order and pay for their food at an iPad kiosk. Moments later, a meal appears in an individual cubbyhole with an LED display of the appropriate customer’s name on its clear glass screen.

The meals are all vegetarian and quinoa-based. Customers can select a 12- or 16-ounce bowl of quinoa with various toppings based on eight customizable flavor themes such as “No Worry Curry,” “Burrito Bowl” or “Hummus & Falafel,” and there’s the option to build one’s own bowl.'